Looking Back: Muskegon 'unscathed' in mock bomb raid

Civil defense became a high priority after the Soviet Union detonated an atomic bomb in 1949. Congress formed the Federal Civil Defense Administration, which spearheaded bomb shelter-building efforts, which were stockpiled with supplies.

Although the nation was involved in a nuclear holocaust yesterday, enormity of which was growing by the hour today, Muskegon came through unscathed. The all-out attack, a theoretical assault to test the nation’s civil defense system, was in the disaster relief phase today and no evaluations could be expected until the first of the week. In Muskegon, County Civil Defense Director Albert Lundwall Jr. said, “Operation Alert 1957” was considerably more successful than that of a year ago.

“We are better organized, better prepared and better equipped than ever before,” said the director, “and while there are still bugs and room for considerable improvement, we are generally satisfied with yesterday’s results. Of course, the fact we weren’t a target area or close to one, simplified our role.”

The director said a tornado forecast in the middle of the exercise brought no complications. Personnel summoned for severe weather warnings were already at their posts.

In Michigan, the mock assault theoretically wiped out Bay City and killed 109,000 in the Detroit-Mount Clemens area.

LOOKING BACK

Civil defense headquarters at Lansing said a “ground burst” of an estimated two megaton strength hit at Grand River and Livernois and “casualties” were estimated at 34,000 dead and 44,000 injured.

A hypothetical one megaton air burst carrying the force of one million tons of TNT struck at US 25 and Cass in Mount Clemens with the “dead and injured” totaling 118,000.

Bay City received the effect of a 100 kiloton make-believe bomb at M-20 and Third Street bridge. Civil defense officials said Bay City theoretically “was wiped out within a radius of four miles from ground zero.”

The presumed “enemy” who swept across the north pole yesterday with H-bombs to spare and supersonic bombers to deliver them had “smashed” at least 153 vital U.S. targets.

An early-morning bulletin said “countless lives” were saved by nationwide civil defense measures. But tens of millions were lost, hypothetically speaking, and the ravages of airborne contamination were yet to be felt.

In 1957, a simulated nuclear assault was performed to test the nation's civil defense system. "Operation Alert 1957" tested the readiness of the nation. In the simulated attack, Muskegon survived intact, but Bay City was wiped out, while Detroit lost more than 100,000 people. In the U.S, it was estimated tens of millions died.

“It is too early to tell whether the exercise is a success or flop,” one official said. “The results will be trickling in for days.

“We’ve had painful delays in communications. But the real thing would be a lot slower.”

President Eisenhower, after a helicopter flight from a capital that was theoretically blasted soon after, was in safe “hiding.” A mock national emergency was in force, and a rudimentary “war effort” was being patched together on paper.

At another secret headquarters, the twin problems of civilian survival and of assessing what remained to fight with were being dealt with by leaders of the Federal Civil Defense Administration (FCDA) and the office of Defense Mobilization (ODM).

About 5,000 more government officials and key workers will join week-long exercise on Monday. From 30-odd Washington agencies they will report to 80 emergency relocation centers in a half-dozen states. There they will fashion an economy of simulated controls and rationing.

More on the story

From World War II on, civil defense strategy in the U.S. has been subject to both political whims and constantly shifting threats.

From the start, the country’s civil defense efforts have been chronically underfunded and often aimed at the wrong threat, according to a 2006 report by the Office of Homeland Security — the latest in a long line of bureaucracies aimed at responding to the threats “out there.”

“Look out!,” was the straightforward approach taken by the newly formed Office of Civilian Defense in 1941.

Civil defense became a low-priority after World War II, right up until the day in 1949 that the Soviet Union detonated an atomic bomb.

Keen on saving the country money, the Eisenhower administration slashed already low civil defense funding and adopted a “Run away!” approach, emphasizing the evacuation of major cities via the new Interstate Highway System in the event of an attack.

By 1957 and the mock A-bomb raid here, the leading strategy was “Hide!” and civil defense experts were backing a $32 billion program to stimulate construction of fallout shelters.

At the same time, and far less publicly, defense experts were hatching the “Everybody dies” plan, more commonly given the moniker Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.), a strategy that guided defense policy throughout the Cold War.

After stepping close to the brink of testing out the “Everybody Dies!” plan during the Berlin Airlift and Cuban Missile Crisis, the country settled on the “Hide!” tactic until President Johnson slashed civil defense funding in the mid-1960s and the public grew bored with the threat of nuclear annihilation.

The Ford administration advocated the “Run away!” plan once more when it staged a tepid civil defense renaissance in the 1970s.

Just how poorly prepared the country was to face a major disaster became painfully clear during the meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, which led to the formation of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, civil defense strategy shifted to the growing threat from terrorist attacks, culminating with the formation of the Office of Homeland Security following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

We now have a handy color-coded guide to the severity of the threats facing us (green is low, blue is guarded, and red is high).